Music: Lucero bringing Memphis rock to Boston

By Chad Berndtson/For The Patriot Ledger

Tuesday

Oct 9, 2018 at 10:43 AM

“In the beginning we didn’t expect to be here 20 years later, or, we expected to be rich and ruling the world,” said Ben Nichols, singer and guitarist for Lucero. “We’re somewhere in between – there’s no limos with hot tubs in them, alas, but we’ve found out it’s better without that stuff. The heart and soul of the band – the core of it – is still here.”

Lucero still sounds as immediate, soulful and raw as it did when it arrived in the late 90s, so it’s surprising to think the raucous Memphis band is entering its third decade. But here they are – not only whole, but also towing “Among the Ghosts,” their new album and one of their most accomplished.

“The songwriting comes from the same place but I think we’ve matured and I think that’s made it better,” Nichols said in an interview ahead of the band’s stop at Boston’s Paradise Rock Club on Saturday. “I’m still proud of all the old songs – we still sing stuff from 20 years ago and I still mean most of the stuff I wrote then. But crafting into a story is something we’re getting better at. Back then, younger, we wrote raw and emotional – it spilled out. Today it’s got to be something more tasteful and artful, without losing that core.”

As its title would imply, “Among the Ghosts” can get heavy; “To My Dearest Wife” and “Long Way Back Home,” take the point of view of Civil War soldiers and Iraqi War veterans, and “Bottom of the Sea” is about crippling depression. Even the rowdier stuff no Lucero album could be without – here, “For the Lonely Ones” – has a sad streak in its punked-up barroom defiance.

But the band at heart is guitars and rhythms and power chords – unpretentiously so – and depending on your mood can sound like the most rock 'n' roll of country bands or a garage rock band with a country streak. They never feel spare, even with the sounds on “Among the Ghosts” more straightforwardly rock, like its early records, than the Memphis horns-laden feel of recent releases.

“Before, we traveled a lot and could stay out all night and do things all the time and that was the beginning of the band,” Nichols said. “But life gets in the way, and you get older and some of us have kids and you realize just what there is out there to be happy about and how much more there is to lose. ‘Among the Ghosts’ comes from that place.”